New Zealand Interview - Part 2

So I was a young fellow out, you know, just studying theology. I mean, I didn't sit long, I got on my knees. At some point, I sat with my back against the wall, opened my eyes, because I didn't know that someone could live a Christian life that was so vibrant, and what we would say riveted with a sense of a love for Christ.

And so after he prayed, I mean, the tears were streaming down my cheeks, because I didn't know this could exist. And so after he prayed, we sat down, and I had nothing to say about theology, because I was confronted with a fias, the god of theology in the life of this African pastor. And we sat down, and he just turned to me, and he just said to me, there's a little mountain in your farm.

We call them copies in South Africa. And he said, there's this little mountain in your farm where six of us spend days and nights of prayer and fasting. And fasting to them was praying without words.

And so I sat there, and I thought, oh, I mean, can you really do this? And so I never knew, you know, I never thought that these men would allow me to go and pray with them. And so it is a Friday night, I sat in my study about nine o'clock at night, a dark African night. You could hardly see your hand in front of your face.

And as I sat there, there was a knock at the window. And when I opened the curtain of my window of my cottage, and you know, I don't mean this in the wrong way, because I love the African people. I lecture in Africa every two years in different countries and seminaries.

But as I opened the curtain, I couldn't see his face, because he was as black as Africa. I mean, beautiful black. And in fact, all I could see was the white teeth.

And he just said to me in the African dialect, he really just said, we're going to pray. And so I was allowed to go and pray with him. And we were walking, you know, in the darkness of the night.

I wanted to know, you know, and they were singing the way that, I mean, you know, the Africans can sing. And as we were walking, I got a hold of his arm. His name was Pietro Smalipa.

And in the darkness of the night, he turned around, and I'm glad I couldn't see his eyes, because they would have pierced into my soul. And I just, I said to him, Pietro Smalipa, how do you spend a night in prayer? How do you process it? You know, I was thinking the hours, emotionally, spiritually, physically, how do you do this? And I'll never forget this in the darkness of the night, he just turned around, and he just said to me, he said, white man, he said, you've got a problem. And I looked at him, I thought, what does he mean? He said, you've got a big problem.

He said, you're in a hurry, and God is not. And he said, you're going to learn what it means to wait. You know, Dr. Samuel Chadwick said, hurry is the death of prayer.

And so these men, they would go there and spend sometimes 40 days, prayer and fasting. He took a little black African boy there who suffered from polio, sick, spent five days in prayer and fasting, and God just gave him a sense that he was going to touch the life of this boy. He didn't even lay hands upon him, he just prayed over him, and God touched this little boy, and he was healed up till today.

And so these men, so that was the introduction to me as it relates to prayer. I mean, this is 40 years ago, but you know what, Laurel, it's as fresh as it happened this morning. Yeah, it's precious.

Now, of course, that's why you're here, because you're wanting to share this truth and these experiences with the people of New Zealand. And coming up shortly, we'll find out exactly how people can go about to do this. We'll be talking about that soon.